But then I thought about it more and I decided that the LAST thing I want to be is a firework. As exciting as they are, fireworks don’t really have a long life. There’s a high-pitched hum, a crackle, and then a really cool explosion of light that lasts for maybe five seconds.

And that’s all there is. Except for the smell of sulfur that lasts for another minute, and the charred out debris that lands somewhere. For all of their glory, fireworks burn out pretty fast. No matter how high they go, no matter how cool the colors are, they’re forgotten when the next one goes off.